Finding Your Style Statement Words

On Peaceful Dumpling, we like to talk about cruelty-free fashion and eco wardrobes, but we also know that style is about more than clothing and accessories. Style encompasses those elements and so much more. Your style is that fluid, exquisite mark that belongs to you alone. It touches everything–from the way you dress to how you spend your alone time—from your favorite bracelet to how you answer the telephone.

Style Statement by Carrie McCarthy & Danielle LaPorte

Being the lover of language that I am, I’m always game to write about my style. Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte wrote Style Statement: Life by your own design to help women (and men) think more deeply about their personal styles and how to define define them through journalling. After reaching the end of the book, readers define their styles with just two meaningful words.

The first word is your Foundation Word. It represents your core: “this is the part of you that feels like first nature, even if you resist it.” Possible Foundation Words: Refined, Enduring, Organic, Sacred, Bohemian, Elemental, Innovative, and Graceful (to name a few!).

Your Creative Edge Word comes next. This is like the accessory to your Foundation Word: “It’s how you express and distinguish your being…it’s your jewelry or artwork on the walls.” Possible Creative Edge Words: Fantasy, Shimmer, Sincere, Esprit, Devoted, Darling, and Cozy (to name a few!).

To help you think about your word choices, Style Statement guides you through several get-to-know-thyself questions. Here are a few I devised that will hopefully lead you into style journaling bliss. Try to be as specific as possible, using concrete details to answer each question.

What is your favorite time of day? What do you like to be doing then? How does it make you feel?

Describe your favorite textures. Where do they come from (nature, art, etc.)? What feelings do these textures evoke?

How would your best friend describe your personality? Your style?

Where do you feel your heart belongs? (Does your heart belong to a physical location like the mountains? Does your heart belong with your career or a certain cause?)

How do you nourish yourself?

Finally, what are your favorite items? Explore their stories.

Once you’ve taken inventory of your style, you’re ready to create your two-word style statement. What is the essence of your answers to the style questions? The best word to describe this will be your Foundation Word. What is the unique charm of your answers? The best word to describe this will be your Creative Edge Word.

But the style happy doesn’t end here. The amazing part of choosing words to define your style is that they really go beyond mere description. Writing, even writing two words, is at once a record of thinking and a way of thinking itself. I found that once I discovered my style statement, new musings grew from the statement itself.

My style statement is Creative Delicate. I am nourished by art, whether I write, cook it, see it, watch it, or hear it. I also have a sensitive nature, and I’m drawn to refined and subtle feminine details. I believe in the beauty of everyday experiences–the ones we easily take for granted. To me, Creative Delicate mean presence, warmth, grace, and inspiration. (You see how a few words can lead to several more!)

Here are a few of my favorite things:

Clockwise from top-left: A collaged page of my art journal–I love combining different textures on a single page. An old photo of my mother (pre-me) that reminds me to channel her joy, strength, and generosity. A vintage postcard of California (my heart–and nostalgia–belong to the west coast). A still from Lana Del Rey’s music video “Video Games;” this song happened to be at the top of my playlist around the time I was becoming vegan and will forever be associated with that amazing transformative period. Plus, she’s my girl crush. Red lips & painted nails. A pressed rose petal from a bouquet I received in high school–even then I was quite the collector of the beautiful and delicate.

I am determined to find my Style Statement but having so much trouble with it…there are so many words in English, French, and Korean that come to mind but none “just so.” (I am in love with ‘exquise’–what a word!) “Creative Delicate” is just sooo you!

It can be really difficult to narrow down! After I found my words, I made a long list of liberal synonyms for each–I like to think my style statement encompasses all of those meanings 🙂 I chose my words straight from the book, but there are so many more possibilities out there! You could even do a combo of languages…

Ooooh…that’s perfect. Those words sound so beautiful together. “Organic is a divine dichotomy: practical but spontaneous, structured but flowing…Organic’s aesthetic is based on sensuality, quality, and construction…Pure, essential, enduring.” I’d say that describes you pretty well 🙂